Debt Crisis Accord

The debt crisis, the potential for default, and the last-minute compromise were the hot items on the news and talk shows for weeks.  Buried in all that were lessons to be learned that have nothing to do with world finance or economics. 

Remember, I do not take political sides.  I look at how the message is delivered and how we react to it.  We would do well to consider the communication, or lack thereof, that we recently witnessed.

At a recent party, a Democratic friend voiced an idea for saving billions while at the same time addressing the drug problem and the immigration problem.  The Republicans there loved it.  It was a good idea. It was logical; it made sense.  It solved four problems simultaneously.

I have friends who are Republicans and I have friends who are Democrats.  As I spoke to them, taking my own unofficial poll, I found they agree on most major points regarding the debt ceiling and the budget crisis.  If they are in accord, how can their representatives in Congress not be? 

Was this a case of poor communication?  Is there some other way the electorate should be telling their representatives what they want? 

Perhaps the root of the problem is buried in the word “representative.”  Its definition, from Merriam-Webster.com, is [emphasis mine]:

1. Serving to represent

2.a : standing or acting for another especially through delegated authority b : of, based on, or constituting a government in which the many are represented by persons chosen from among them usually by election

We do not live in a true democracy where everything is put to a vote and decided upon by the citizens. We live in a republic.  We select people to represent us.  Those individuals are acting for us, not for themselves – according to the definition above.  And that must be the point of the communication breakdown.  Either we or they do not understand what it means to represent. 

I sure hope that gets resolved or it won’t matter how good the communication is.

Storm Stories

If you watched the news or The Weather Channel last night, you probably saw that fierce storms rolled through the Chicago area around 8:30.  They were impressive storms: the wind picked up a full-sized jet at O'Hare airport and moved it thirty feet.  Three tornados were sighted and a big chunk of the north suburban area was under an official tornado warning.

This blog, however, is not about the weather.  It is about communication.  The citizens of northern Illinois needed it last night and, in many cases, we didn't get it.

Channel 20 (a PBS station), alerted its viewers to the issuance of a tornado warning. However, the station switched to the Emergency Broadcast System, which our Comcast cable box promptly locked out, making the information unreadable. We had to turn the television off and then back on to get to another station to find out if the warning applied to our area.  We found two stations (Channels 2-CBS and 5-NBC) had their weathermen delivering reports but we missed most of it because we had been forced to "reboot" the TV.  And the radio was no help. We tried two stations and learned the Cubs game was delayed. Nothing was said about the tornado warning during the time we listened.

Back to the television.  As soon as CBS and NBC delivered the weather report, both stations returned to network programming.  One station, which continually brags about the amount of money it spends on weather instrumentation, had no live reports during any of the times we left The Weather Channel to check local station coverage. This is not the fault of the weather people who work for the stations.  The decision to interrupt regular programming is made by management and management obviously decided that commerical revenue was more important than alerting Chicagoans of impending bad weather.

Suffice it to say that Chicago was very lucky last night because it escaped a castatrophe.  Since the local stations didn't think the storm was important, no one else did either.  Imagine leaving fans in their seats at the ball park or seated outside at an open-air concert when 80-mile an hour winds were about to hit them.  How irresponsible can you get? 

So, thank you, Channel 20 for taking the warnings seriously.  And thank you Weather Channel for your coverage last night. We would not have known what was coming or what to expect had it not been for you understanding how dangerous that storm could be.  You communicated: efficiently, effectively, and continously. 

Referrals are a Reflection on You

Referrals are a unique form of communication. When we make one, we put our own reputations on the line. People follow our recommendations if they trust us and respect our opinion. If our referral turns out to be a bad experience, our reputations suffer.

In the last post, I mentioned that I had product issues with two companies. One responded in an overwhelmingly positive fashion and now my family is recommending it to everyone they know. The other was polite but that was about it. We tried both products as the result of recommendations made by friends.

In my networking group, this very topic came up recently for discussion. A member reminded us that when we make a referral, we put our own reputations on the line. It is one of the reasons we do not have a referral requirement in that group. No one should be forced to recommend any person, product, or company. Recommendations are not made unless the member is willing to stake her own reputation on it.

That discussion made me think. How valuable is our personal reputation? Apparently, not very.

People do things like pose nude, have affairs, and fudge on their taxes; all things that sully their reputations. Is it any wonder that we no longer trust each other? We have no reason to believe in each other and that is a direct result of not protecting our own reputations.

I am careful now when I make a recommendation because I have had people or products not perform as I said they would. Those I referred were disappointed in both the service they received and in the person who sent them there - me.

I want people to be happy with the product or company I recommend to them. A good referral reflects well on me and hopefully, those I pass on to others will come back to use me and my product…because they trust me - because I made a good referral.